Since it's been so long that nobody even remembers me, I decided to upgrade my story topic for GEN2 compatibility. If you are new to this topic, my intention is to consolidate questions, complaints, and inconsistencies around the Halo canon into one topic. I am creating this guide with the assumption that you have at least played the games and have a decent understanding of the storyline. If this is not the case, do not hesitate to ask a question. As the old saying goes, the only stupid question is the one that's never asked.

INTRODUCTION

To the average Halo player, the Campaign mode is an excuse to shoot things in a series whose primary focus is multiplayer. However, a surprisingly large amount of people (including me) appreciate the story. Due to the game being a fast-paced FPS, the story of the games have to be kept to a minimum in order to not bog down the gameplay. However, those who look for it are going to find an excellent universe that is filled with centuries of backstory. Novels, strategy guides, and viral marketing devices help expand Halo's universe into a much larger picture.

This topic will begin as an introduction to Halo canon. Then, I will go into contradictions and inconsistencies, curiosities, common questions, and conclude with a timeline of the series. If you want to find a quick spot on the timeline, I have listed the posts where the timeline covers the games and most of the novels and graphics novels (Fall of Reach, Ghosts of Onyx, and the anthologies have been omitted because they span decades of the timeline).